In May 1908, after fire destroyed a LaPorte farmhouse, police made a gruesome discovery.

In addition to three bodies found inside the house — one of them headless — investigators found the remains of several more buried on the property. The owner of the house was Belle Gunness, who turned out to be one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

Belle was a robust Norwegian immigrant with four children who ably ran her farm — especially when it came to hog butchering.

Twice widowed, Gunness began placing newspaper ads in Midwestern Norwegian newspapers seeking male suiters: “Personal — comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte County, Indiana, desires to make the acquaintance of gentleman equally well provided, with view of joining fortunes. No replies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. Triflers need not apply.”

In a letter to Carl Peterson of Wisconsin, she told him she had received as many as 50 responses to the ad.

“I have picked out the most respectable and I have decided that yours is such,” wrote Gunness.

Belle Gunness is pictured with her kids: Lucy and Myrtle Sorneson (from her first marriage) and Phillip Gunness (from her second marriage)(Photo: LaPorte County Historical Society)

She describes her LaPorte farm as picturesque, almost a Utopia, yet in need of a man to share in the labor.

“Now, if you think that you are able in some way to put up $1,000 cash, we can talk matters over personally,” wrote Gunness.

One by one, the unsuspecting men were lured to the farm. Belle would separate the suitors from their money, life insurance and property before poisoning them, cutting them up and burying them on her farm.

At least 10 men answered the ads, but stories over the years estimate her victims at two if not three times that number.

Ray Lamphere, the hired man at the Gunness farm, was so smitten with Belle he was willing to perform the most gruesome tasks for her. But Lamphere was a liability to Belle. He repeatedly threatened her after she spurned his affections.

So, she set the stage for her disappearance and for his “involvement” in the killings. In April 1908, Gunness visited her attorney to establish a will and tearfully told him she feared she did not have long to live.

The following day, a fire ravaged the Gunness home. Police concluded the charred remains were that of Belle and three of her children. Belle's "body" was missing a head.

The curious inspect the burned out home of Belle Gunness, who was found to have killed dozens of people and buried them out back.(Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Lamphere was arrested and was subjected to a “severe sweating” by police. He admitted he passed the Gunness home on the morning of the fire and saw smoke, but feared sounding the alarm might throw blame on himself. He would be charged and sentenced for arson.

During the investigation, Asle Helgelein, the brother of one of Belle's missing suitors, arrived in LaPorte during the investigation. He told the sheriff he suspected Andrew Helgelein had met with foul play.

Police began a search of the property. Dozens dug around the farm and discovered not just Andrew Helgelien but the remains of one victim after another.

Andrew Helgelein, a farmer from South Dakota was lured to LaPorte, Ind. by Belle Gunness. Within days of depositing his life savings at the Savings Bank of LaPorte, Helgelien vanished.(Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

What they found was a graveyard for murder victims, and newspapers began calling her a “Bluebeard in skirts."

Railroads ran special excursions to the Gunness farm, bringing morbidly curious sightseers with the hope of catching a glimpse of police pulling out body parts. As many as 15,000 arrived in a single day.

Refreshment stands were set up along the road serving “Gunness stew.”

Photo shows the scene at Belle Gunness' farm in LaPorte, Ind., when large crowds came to watch bodies being pulled out of the ground.(Photo: Laporte County Historical Society)

When Ray Lamphere, the hired hand, went to the Indiana State Prison, he had tuberculosis. He gave a deathbed confession to fellow inmate Harry Myer and revealed his part in the crimes. Lamphere said he set the fire and drove Belle to the railroad station. He said the burned female body was that of Belle's housekeeper.

Alleged sightings of Gunness were reported for years.

In 2008, a forensics team from the University of Indianapolis, led by forensic anthropologist Stephen Nawrocki, exhumed the remains in Belle’s coffin. They hoped using the DNA from a letter she sent one of the victims would prove Belle had died in the fire.